BY GREG McCARTAN
Building on initial sales of Ernesto Che Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War - 1956-58, socialists in several cities have raised their goals for getting the book into the hands of coworkers, youth, and those involved in social protest action. Atlanta increased by 10, from 25 to 35; Pittsburgh upped by 15, from 40 to 55; and Twin Cities, Minnesota, jumped 20, for a new total of 80.
Socialists who are members of the industrial unions have also taken a goal of selling 500 of the new Pathfinder book to coworkers on the job. The campaign ends April 1. Next week we will publish the nationwide goal for sales of Episodes throughout the United States.
"We've sold 47 so far!" reported steelworker and Young Socialists leader Megan Arney from St. Paul, Minnesota. "At a forum celebrating the publication of the book last Friday we sold five copies. I've sold two on the job to coworkers, and I am selling another one tonight." Another book has been sold to a member of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers union, and six to people active in organizations building solidarity with the Cuban revolution.
Jeff Grab, a member of the United Transportation Union who works on the CP-Soo Line railroad, sent a message to the forum. "This is a work for all people," Grab wrote. "Whether one is pro, con, or neutral on the issue of the Cuban revolution this is undeniably a rousing tale beautifully told. Like the revolutionary army bursting out of its cradle in the Sierra Maestra, this work deserves Mainstreaming. Whether it makes it or not remains to be seen, but it is the best I've read in years."
"We are also building the Young Socialists convention that will be held here in early April," Arney reported. "We've been talking to student activists at the University of Minnesota about our national meeting. Six have bought copies of the book."
Pathfinder supporters and socialists in a number of cities are planning book launchings and other events to celebrate the publication of the book - including in Philadelphia March 2, in Los Angeles the following weekend, and in Des Moines in mid- March. In New York and Newark, supporters are hitting the streets this week to build a Militant Labor Forum featuring Waters, who will be giving a report-back from the Havana book fair (see ad on front page).
Norton Sandler from Des Moines reports that six copies of Episodes of the Cuba Revolutionary War were sold during the recent tour of Iowa by Armando Amieva, third secretary of the Cuban government's interests section in Washington, D.C.
Organized by the Iowa Network on Cuba, the tour included speaking engagements on college campuses, discussions with industrial workers, and press interviews. "A lot of people looked through the book and were interested in it, and it opens the door to sales of other books by Pathfinder as well," Sandler said. "Three people in Ames who helped organize the tour purchased copies of the book, as well as two people in Sioux City," where Amieva spoke to 45 students at Morningside and Briar Cliff colleges.
As they participate in protest actions, strikes, and picket lines, socialists are showing the book around and explaining why what Guevara relates is of crucial importance for fighters today.
Thousands of unionists are expected to join a labor protest in Hamilton, Ontario, February 24 as part of an upturn in labor resistance to the offensive by the wealthy minority and their government against the wages, rights, and social gains of working people.
"Hamilton is a steel city," reports Rosemary Ray, a leader of the Communist League in Toronto. "Thousands of steelworkers will participate in this action against government cuts, and of the 1,000 union buses already coming, 500 are from the teachers union. We're going to be talking to people all day long, holding up Episodes and New International no. 10, to get information into people's hands about imperialism's march toward fascism and war and how working people can organize a revolutionary struggle to take state power and establish our own government," she said.
Socialist Workers Party militants who are members of trade unions are using the Episodes sales campaign as a springboard to increase overall sales of communist literature. Socialists in eight unions have adopted monthly goals to increase sales of Pathfinder books sold to coworkers on the job, sign up dozens of new industrial workers as members of the Pathfinder Readers Club, and boost the number of weekly sales of communist literature at factory gates. The Militant will run these goals and provide regular progress reports on this campaign as well.